Electrical connectors provide an access to electrical and electronic circuits, e.g. integrated circuits, connected downstream to a power or signal path. However, in case of connecting two or more electronic devices considerable electrical potential differences or voltages may occur between the individual devices and, in case of electrical potential-free connections, electrostatic charges can be applied and when the associated electrical connectors are joint together, undesired discharge of the charges producing the potential difference, or electrostatic discharge of the electrostatic charge may occur. These discharging processes are apt to cause severe damage in a electronic equipment, e.g. an integrated circuit, arranged downstream the signal or power path, it being possible for the damage even to lead to complete failure of the respective equipment.
With process shrinks of the digital core in state of the art integrated circuits easing deep submicron technology much lower than 90 nm feature size, electrostatic discharge (ESD) becomes very severe.
A number of prior art ESD protections are known, including usually both the design of ESD-circuits as part of the integrated circuit on the motherboard and also the provision of separate discrete or semi-discrete components for ESD protection to be placed on the motherboard. Such semi-discrete components include products with a plurality of diodes and RC-filters and are particularly intended for portable applications. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,223 and EP 1111730 A2 show prior art ESD protection. U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,223 shows a Zener diode for purposes of ESD protection of an electrical connector. EP 1111730 A2 shows an additional electrically conductive material to discharge charges from an electrical connector.